How my lived experiences determined my chosen career path into Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?

Welcome to my first every newsletter, seeing as it’s my first ever one and also I've hit 5,000 followers on LinkedIn (woohoo!) I felt it would be fitting to introduce myself and also why I decided I wanted a career in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

I'm Ash Ahmad and a year ago I decided I wanted to start my own business as a DE&I and Wellbeing Consultant. Let's just say, this past year has definitely been one of the biggest rollercoaster journeys of my life with some of the greatest high's and equally some of my biggest lows. Yet, crazily I still want to continue this journey because I know I have so much more to experience, deliver and offer.

So, who am I? And what got me to my current place? Well, you all know me as Ash, short for Arshia (pronounced Ur-shi-ya, I still want you to call me Ash however!) and I'm a British, South Asian, Pakistani, Muslim, working mother. How's that for intersectionality? Despite all these identities, I've never felt like I've truly belonged in any of these spaces and a lot of that likely has to do with how others have made me feel. Too cultural to be British, too Gori (gori means white or western in the Pakistani culture) to be a Pakistani, too materialistic to be a practicing Muslim and too focused on her career to be a good mother. How does one show up as their authentic self, when the world around them constantly questions their identity? I love every single one of these titles and I wear each hat very proudly but apparently, I must fit in one box because I'm unable to successfully be a mix of all.

In order to fit in to these identities I conformed but it greatly disturbed the peace of my heart. I remember when I first started University and ventured out of my hometown (where most people looked like me), I was faced with so many people from different backgrounds, I was so overwhelmed and so afraid to lose my identity as a Pakistani I showed up to University wearing my traditional Salwar Kameez because I wanted to make a statement that this is me and you can either accept me or do one, lol! University ended up being some of the best years of my life because it allowed me to connect with people from all walks of life and see things differently which you're unable to do when you've lived in a place that's pretty homogenous your whole life. I never fully felt free in expressing my true authentic self because I was afraid I was going to be judged or penalised for it, therefore I suppressed a lot (which probably led to me suffering from depression for many years of my life and is probably a factor why so many others struggle mental ill health). I heard of the term code-switching and I realised I had been doing this for many years of my life and honestly, it's bloody tiring. Why can't people just accept me for who I am? A question I'd always ask myself and knew if I could show up as myself I would be happier, more productive and just a complete badass altogether.

And so this is where my love for DE&I started. I joined a committee 8 years ago in my previous organisation alongside working as an Assistant Manager and I loved it. It centred around how can minorities thrive into leadership roles (although, looking back now I don't think I necessarily agree with some of the topics we covered as the onus was sometimes put on the individual and didn't consider the environment's role, in fuelling that act or behaviour). Nevertheless, progress was being made slowly but surely and I loved that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion promoted fairness, a chance to be seen and heard, a chance to make a difference. My love for supporting and developing people and all the skills I'd gained in the various roles I did, allowed me to pivot in my career and join the people profession as a HR Generalist and then later a Training and Development Specialist.

I continued with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives alongside these roles and chaired the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for our European corporate head office for 2 years which had some huge successes. The thing I loved the most was the feedback from marginalised groups, thanking me for the work we were doing, the positive impact it was having on their lives and how it allowed them to be their true selves at work. This meant so much to me, especially for someone who never felt like she truly belonged in spaces. The phrase "find a solution to the problem your younger self had" was exactly what I was doing in my DE&I work. And so, when the pandemic hit and it gave me a chance to re-evaluate my priorities and what I wanted from life, I decided it was time to move on and after a conversation with a LinkedIn connection at the time, who now is a very good friend and the biggest cheerleader I decided to embark on this journey of doing my own thing because I believed I could make more of an impact this way and this will also allow me to help others like me to overcome challenges and barriers I too faced. I now work with organisations to create real meaningful change and work with woman, particularly women of colour on a 1-2-1 basis coaching them to thrive in their lives and career (if this is something you are interested in, you can book an introductory call via the following link where you can also find my other services on).

If you've made it to the end, then I'd also like to let you in on a secret and celebration that after completing one year of self-employment, I have finally set up my own company (imposter syndrome told me I wasn't good enough to have my own company, including many others who doubted I'd be successful working for myself. In your face! Hah!) and will now be trading as a limited company. Woohoo!!!

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